The computers are designed to survive and function in extreme production environments where use of normal computers is impossible.

Typical applications are wet environments such as slaughterhouses, chemical or pharmaceutical plants where equipment needs to be washed down regularly during and after use.

Instead of keyboards, each PC uses watertight and extremely durable touchscreen keypads to prevent water ingress during frequent and systematic wash downs.

The industrial weighing computers are housed in robust shockproof stainless steel or aluminium enclosures sealed to the IP67 and NEMA 4 protection standards.

Flintec’s team played an integral design role in the project, developing the application-critical electronics and weighing software at the heart of the new machines.

Its technology has eliminated the need for weight indicators ­- instead the PC takes on that role.

Normally, a weighing scale would be connected to a weighing indicator which would then be connected to a PC. Flintec’s technology has enabled Noax to link the weighing scales directly to the PCs.

Flintec Managing Director David Weeks said: “This is an example of embedded electronics. We are designing solutions which are an integral part of the equipment, rather than peripheral accessories.

“This project has been extremely successful for us and we are keen to work with other partners on a similar basis.”

Experts at Flintec are increasingly being brought into projects at early stages, moving the weighing solution to the heart of the design, shortening time to market and reducing overall costs.

In the Noax project, Flintec provided the general load cell knowledge, electronics and software to create the weighing ‘brain’ of the new generation industrial PCs.

Flintec’s involvement in the industrial weighing computers project was driven by the company’s German team at Meckesheim near Heidelberg. They collaborated with the Noax PC designers at Ebersberg near Munich.

The two companies have joined forces to target new and existing markets with this innovative approach to industrial weighing in harsh environments.